


Reversed

by Starlord_451



Series: Kliego Week 2020 [6]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emetophobia, F/M, Five gets them into trouble, Hurt/Comfort, Incest, M/M, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:48:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27279760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlord_451/pseuds/Starlord_451
Summary: “Klaus.” Diego called and the medium raised his head from where it was resting on Diego’s shoulder “Tell him why we’re actually here.”“Oh, right!”Five turned around, recognising the nervousness behind Diego’s tone.“I can’t see ghosts. Can’t summon them either. Not even Ben.” Klaus said.OrWhen Five steals a machine from an alien, the creature steals something from him in return.Kliego Week 2020 – Day 6:Fall Centric AU ORHurt/Comfort
Relationships: (secondary) Luther Hargreeves/Allison Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Kliego Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984837
Kudos: 47
Collections: Kliego Week 2020





	Reversed

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!
> 
> Just a few warnings before you start reading: it's set some months after the events of season 2, but I'm ignoring Ben's permanent death (as usual) and the Sparrow Academy. Basically they are back in the right timeline with no Apocalypse on sight.  
> I'm not exactly happy with how I've written this, but I really liked the idea behind it so I thought I'd post it anyway.  
> If you think I need to add other tags to this fic, please let me know and I will right away!
> 
> Enjoy!

Five could admit that in his quite long life he had seen a lot of weird stuff. Stuff that ranged from normal strange, like Ben’s power, to downright what-the-fuck-is-happening kind of bizarre.

The human looking being screeching like a banshee, flailing its arms in very non-human movements and twisting its features in a nightmarish fashion definitely belonged in the second category.

A bit of context is fundamental in explaining how Five managed to find himself in this Situation.

Since coming back from the 60s Five and his siblings had tried to establish a sort of normalcy in their lives that of course could never really be achieved because they were the Hargreeves.

In any case, things were looking up for them.

Most of them had left the academy but they were still meeting regularly, cooking lunches and dinners because in some way or another there were always at least three or more siblings in the household.

Luther had finally officially moved out despite having effectively inherited the house – a privilege that came with being Number One and that Luther had very happily given up, with a smirk in Diego’s direction telling him that this point in the inheritance shouldn’t be valid anymore since they were Team Zero.

So, Allison and he had moved out in a very nice house that was right next to Vanya’s quaint little flat.

The other two siblings that got their head out of the sand were Diego and Klaus who, after a big, big row because of the Lila business, had finally admitted their love for each other and moved out in a flat that was right in front of the academy, allowing Diego to visit Mum as many times as he wanted.

Five was the only one who stayed in academy due to a number of reasons, starting with being technically a thirteen-years-old and ending with his need to figure out what to do with his life.

He thought that staying alone in the academy would give him the time and space to breathe and figure out a plan, but he didn’t account for his siblings’ constant presence which was quite frankly very unexpected since the last time they were in the right timeline they seemed like they couldn’t wait to get out of the academy.

Even if at first it was very irritating to always have them around, he found himself getting used to their company, seeking it when it was missing. The long afternoons in Vanya’s flat, listening to her play while he worked on his equations were quickly starting to become the best time of his life.

They had been recently talking of just moving there with her, though it was a bit of a slow process what with Five being so used to live on his own.

Missions were something that Five had to orchestrate mainly because of Luther and Diego’s restlessness.

Every once in a while, something would come up and they all gathered to work out a plan and save the day. It was all very easy to Five, but it made Luther and Diego feel happy, so he was willing to waste time on it. It helped that Vanya was delighted in finally being a part of missions as well.

His real work though once again concerned the Commission. He had made a deal with Herb: he would take care of any disturbances happening in this timeline.

It helped that now corrections didn’t necessarily involve murder, as the new order in the Commission was evaluating other solutions as well, meaning that Five didn’t have to come home in a pool of blood anymore and he was quite happy about that.

Still, Five made sure that his siblings never participated in any Commission related work, going as far as making a written contract with Herb ensuring that none of the others should be involved with the Commission ever again. He was too afraid of what could happen if Herb was substituted by another lunatic like The Handler.

That’s how he found himself in a warehouse full of alien machineries, in the middle of nowhere, getting rid of what looked like robots and screaming at the screeching creature that she was not welcomed here.

It was an incredibly easy mission since, as Herb had mentioned in the debriefing, the alien couldn’t touch him without getting burnt. Five only had to take out the robots she had created and inform her that she should travel to at least five hundred years in the future if she wanted to stay in this planet.

The only complication of the mission was that the creature hadn’t stopped screaming the moment she saw him and convincing her of going away was getting more and more difficult. Still, once he got rid of all her robots, she should work out on her own that there was nothing more for her to do in this timeline. At least, that’s what Herb had assured him.

Really, it should all have gone smoothly and Five could have gone back to the academy and enjoy Allison’s movie night with his brothers. But it didn’t.

Five’s eyes caught a glimmering machine next to the creature. The technology was alien but it was fascinating and Five got a vague understanding of what it could do.

As soon as his hands were on the machine the alien flailed harder, talking for the first time.

“Whatever I lose, you’ll lose too” she repeated with a hundred voices, slithering in a thundering echo like snakes.

Then Five did what he later deemed as the most stupid thing after jumping in the future and getting stuck in the apocalypse.

He stole it.

***

He spent the next day in Pogo’s lab testing the machine to figure out what it was made of and what it could do. He could clearly see that it could manipulate time at a certain extent, so Five’s hope was that it could bring him back to his own real 58 years old body.

He spent hours on end trying to work out how it worked. His experiments were only stopped by threats.

They came in a weird fashion: writings that appeared on a mirror _You’ll regret it_ , lights flickering and doors slamming shut on their own, _Get me back what’s mine_ written on the kitchen floor with Klaus’ red lipstick, broken windows and so on.

Now. Five was fifty-eight years old. He was a temporal assassin and the deadliest member of the Umbrella Academy.

If the alien wanted to scare him than she really had to up her game. Being threaten by someone whose army of robots he had just killed and who couldn’t physically touch him was a joke.

So he ignored them and went on with his day.

During lunch, his experiments were rudely cut off by Klaus’ shrieking.

“WHAT IS THIS?”

He rolled his eyes and jumped but… nothing happened. He tried using his power again but failed. He couldn’t even feel the matter of reality bend around his hands: it was like his powers had failed him completely.

Ugh.

The mad alien and her weird technology were certainly behind it.

He used the stairs grumpily and was welcomed by Klaus holding his lipstick in front of him, with an accusing expression.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BABY!”

Five ignored him, passing by him and nodding to Diego who was cleaning the writing off the floor. He prepared a coffee, trying to figure out for how long the alien could cut off his powers.

“Five. Seriously. What’s this?” Diego pointed to the words, his adult expression on. It was ridiculous in Five’s humble opinion.

“A threat.” He said, sipping his coffee.

“I can see that” Diego grumbled, his frustration showing while he scrubbed the floor violently.

“Who’s threatening you?” Klaus asked, throwing his lipstick away with a pout.

“The usual. Coffee?”

Klaus made grabby hands at him, effectively forgetting about their lines of enquiry but Diego obviously didn’t fall for the distraction and looked at him menacingly.

“Nothing that hasn’t already been dealt with.” And Five was honestly sure of this.

He saw the state the alien was in: as soon as she realized that she couldn’t stay in their timeline anymore, she would go away and he would get his powers back.

He opened the fridge grunting when he didn’t find anything. Diego sighed handing him a shopping bag full of supplies he hadn’t seen before.

“You staying for lunch?” Five asked, setting the ingredients on the counter.

Just a few months ago he would have cringed at the domesticity of it all, but now it came natural to all of them.

“Only if you’re cooking.” Klaus sing-sang, moving to sit next to Diego, hooking his leg over his brothers’.

“Obviously.”

“Klaus.” Diego called and the man in question raised his head from where it was resting on Diego’s shoulder “Tell him why we’re actually here.”

“Oh, right!”

Five turned around, recognising the nervousness behind Diego’s tone.

“I can’t see ghosts. Can’t summon them either. Not even Ben.” Klaus said.

A weird feeling engulfed Five, a mix of annoyance, guilt and worry. He was starting to get really pissed at the alien. She could mess with him, but he’d rather she left his family alone.

“Are you sure?” Five enquired with narrowed eyes, looking for any sign of intoxication, though he knew it was a low blow the moment the medium’s eyes lowered with shame.

“He is” Diego answered for him, his hard gaze preventing him from asking any question about Klaus’ sobriety. “And he is not the only one. I’ve missed. A threw a carton of eggs in the trash and I missed. Tried with knives and cut myself while throwing one.”

He showed the offended hand.

Five grunted and closed his eyes in irritation: the alien must have aimed at the entire family. It was going to be a long day.

“We may need to call the whole academy for this.”

“So this is her revenge?” Vanya asked, trying to grasp the situation.

“Sounds quite fair to me.” Allison exclaimed behind her glass of scotch. When Five’s accusing gaze fell upon her, she defended “You did steal from her!”

“And you don’t think she’ll be a threat?” Luther asked a bit unconvinced.

“She is the most helpless being I’ve ever fought against. Worst case scenario we’ll have to deal being powerless for two days. It’s enough time for me to figure out the machine and get it back to her, IF she’s not already gone by then.”

“Though in the meantime we’re vulnerable.” Diego stated and Allison grunted her agreement.

“You have to return the machine.” Allison stated. “We all think so.”

Suddenly, Five felt a shiver of pure irritation towards his sister and his belief of keeping the machine for himself strengthened to the impossible.

“Well. I’m not going to.” he hissed.

“He doesn’t have to, after all” Klaus reinforced, side eyeing Allison.

“Right, he can do whatever he wants!” Luther exclaimed.

Allison set her glass down, looking at them confused. “Okay, guys. What the fuck?”

“What?” Diego bristled.

“Why all the aggression? I’m just saying that he stole it. It’s not his. You realize that, right?”

“Well, it’s mine now!” Five could hear the childish tone he was getting and the absurdity of his statement, but his mind was solely preoccupied with what Allison was saying, set on dismissing her accusations.

Diego nodded to his words and Allison startled.

“Diego, you just said we’d be vulnerable because of him!”

“No, he didn’t!” Klaus sat up, glaring at Allison. “Don’t make things up”

When no one else spoke up in her defence, Allison got up from the armchair looking around her siblings with an exasperated sound “You know what? Do whatever you want. I’m out.”

As soon as she was out of the room, the irritation and unease that had taken a hold of him disappeared and he felt like he could breath again.

That was weird.

“Wait.” Klaus said. “Did I just accuse Allison of making things up when I actually agreed with what she was saying?”

“I think we all did.” Luther said, looking very uncomfortable and with long strides followed Allison out of the living room “I should go and apologize.”

Five’s instincts were screaming “Danger!” at him and even though all that he wanted to do was find the alien and set things back as they were, there was something, like a wall in his mind, that prevented him from taking the machine in the lab and get it back to her.

Luther came back looking even more like a kicked puppy than when he had left, telling them that somehow he managed to make things worst when he talked to Allison. No one was surprised, really.

All five of them silently decided that they should stay together for the time being, so they settled in the living room.

Living a few hours without powers was starting to get on his nerves. He could see the unease build in all of them, apart from Vanya who was actually very used to it.

Diego was quickly forbidden to carry knives, the instinct to throw them was a second nature to him, but the accidents were starting to get more and more dangerous so the vigilante begrudgingly gave them up.

Klaus was the calmest after Vanya and while he missed Ben’s constant nagging, he could finally enjoy some peace from the other ghosts and spent the afternoon napping away.

Five brought parts of the machine to test and make experiments on the far end of the living room, while Vanya was playing next to the fire. Diego and Luther played cards on opposites couches, Klaus resting his feet on Diego’s lap, sleeping soundly.

“I’m going for a snack, want anything?” Vanya asked, setting down her violin.

“Just tea, please. Klaus is going to want one when he gets up.” Diego mumbled looking at the cards in his hand.

Vanya nodded at him, cooing softly at their sleeping brother buried in the couch so that only his curls were visible. Klaus and she had developed quite a strong bond since coming back from the 60s, and Five was glad that she was finally settling in with all of them.

“He doesn’t look very well” Vanya stated, frowning from where she was looking at Klaus.

Immediately, all the attention was on the medium and, as Five got closer to the couch he noticed the deathly pallor of his skin.

Diego put his hand on his shoulder to wake him up but as one of his fingers brushed on Klaus’ flesh, he hissed retreating his hand.

“The fuck? He’s freezing!”

They turned him revealing his face, a collective gasp resonating through the living room as they saw the blue tinge of their brother’s lips.

Five ran to his room, cursing the alien once again for making him this slow, to take as many blankets as he could and when he got back to the living room he found Diego and Luther on either side of a now sitting Klaus, trying to keep him warm with their body heat while Vanya was crouching down in front of him, his hands in hers as she tried talking to him.

He was conscious but barely, definitely not coherent enough to understand what was being said to him, his head kept falling forward as if it was too heavy for him and after a few failed attempts at keeping it up he let it loll against Diego’s shoulder, eyes fluttering close.

Together, they huddled him in the blankets, and Five noted with relief that his teeth had begun to chatter, a good sign. His body was finally reacting.

Diego carried him to the infirmary where Mum tried to get his dangerously low temperature back to normal.

As Grace and Diego worked to keep Klaus warm, Five let himself fall prey to the same feeling that had driven him through two apocalypses. He was going to protect his family. Nothing was going to happen to them.

He looked at Luther, noticing how tired he was as he sat heavily on a chair in front of Klaus’ bed.

He saw Diego constantly rub his eyes as if there was an itch he couldn’t quite scratch.

And finally his gaze landed on Vanya, who kept opening and closing her mouth as if she needed to pop her ears.

This wasn’t good. It needed to stop. He could see what was happening, too afraid of saying out loud desperately wishing to be wrong, to misinterpret the signs.

Still, he had the option of putting a stop to it. He could give the machine back. Expect that he couldn’t. The machine must stay with him.

He clenched his fists at his own madness.

They all stayed in the infirmary until Klaus woke up properly, coherent again.

Diego was right by his side, hugging him desperately.

“Fuck, you’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.”

Klaus fell in Diego’s embrace, confused. Trembling arms latching at the vigilante’s back.

“What happened? What’s going on?” he asked, voice weak.

Diego only tightened his arms around him, whispering soothing words to calm him down.

Five knew that whatever was going on was the alien’s fault. He knew the solution lied in agreeing to her terms and return to her what he stole.

But he couldn’t.

He wanted to, but he just couldn’t.

That night was one of the longest in Five’s life.

Klaus’ temperature wouldn’t stabilize, it always dropped after a few hours, his brother so weak from the constant changes he was almost always sleeping, lost in a haze of shivers and blankets. Diego refused to let the others take care of him, insisting that he would keep watch and call if the situation got worse than it already was.

Five was restless. He needed to figure out what was wrong with their brother, possibly without confirming the suspicions he already had.

He went over Mum’s analyses of his brother’s condition for the umpteenth time, but the solution came to him at 3AM.

He passed by the training rooms where he unsurprisingly found Luther, expect that he… Five did a doubletake.

Luther was struggling to lift weights. Luther. Weights. What the fuck.

The boy grumbled, fear taking hold of his heart. _Please let me be wrong_.

Five entered the kitchen, frantically looking for something to eat. Then it happened.

As he was preparing his sandwich he felt the fingers in his left hand grow increasingly numb, so much that the knife slipped out of his grasp, falling loudly on the plate.

Terror cursed through him as he realized that he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore, they wouldn’t answer his commands.

_Fuck_

He couldn’t ignore it anymore. His fears were correct.

The alien hadn’t just taken their powers. She had reversed them.

Big, strong Luther was becoming increasingly weaker while Five himself would be completely unable to move once his power was completely reversed.

Klaus would die and become a ghost.

And Allison… fuck.

Allison had told him to give the machine back.

Now that her power had been reversed, whatever order she imparted would have the opposite effect. That’s why he was physically incapable of returning the machine.

He ran to the phone, ringing Allison but with dread he realized that he wouldn’t be able to tell her anything. Telling her meant that she would take the machine away from him and the machine had to stay. It was his. It had to stay with him.

He dropped the phone as his arm stopped responding, the numbing sensation that had cursed through his fingers just a few minutes earlier was now running on his whole limb.

They were fucked.

***

“Diego?” Klaus’ feeble voice called him.

“I’m here, babe” and Diego was going nowhere.

Klaus was covered in blankets so that not even an inch of him was left out. His face plastered in Diego’s warm sweater, right in the space between his shoulder and his neck. The vigilante was holding him close, feeling him tremble and shiver.

They had spent the whole night like this, Diego had never once closed his eyes, always alert checking Klaus’ temperature regularly. The medium had woken up every now and then, barely coherent most of the time, just asking Diego to stay with him, saying that he wasn’t feeling very well. And wasn’t that understatement of the year.

Diego was aghast with worry. He didn’t understand what was going on. Klaus was normally cold, a lot colder than any other human, but this was something new.

Five had promised him he would figure it out, that they would get him back on his feet.

“C-cold” Klaus chattered and his eyes fluttered close again.

“I know, I know. But we’ll get you warm, eh? You’ll be okay, Klaus.” Diego comforted him, petting his hair through the blanket, like he knew Klaus loved.

Klaus sighed pathetically and sagged against him like a puppet with broken strings, strength leaving him completely “Love you, Dee”

“I love you too” Diego said holding him even closer to him and, as Klaus fell asleep once again, he felt his eyes well up with tears.

He kissed the mop of curly hair and let himself sink into a troubled sleep for a few hours.

The first rays of sunrise hit the room and when Diego opened his eyes and lifted his head from where he was resting it on top of Klaus’ hair, he realized that his vision was blurred.

Blinking and scrubbing his eyes didn’t help either, he could only make out the shape of things, as if he was seeing things from underwater or covered in fog.

He swallowed, feeling the panic starting to go up especially when he heard voices come from outside the door of the infirmary. He distinctly heard Vanya screaming her lungs out. What was going on?

He didn’t want to leave Klaus’ side, he was the most vulnerable of them right now but he got on his feet ready to strike, ignoring the terror going through him because he wasn’t even sure he could distinguish the door from the wall with how little he could see, let alone start a fight to defend his Klaus.

Vanya quietened down and footsteps approached the infirmary. Diego was ready to attack when the door opened but he recognized Luther’s gigantic frame and relaxed slightly.

“What’s going on?” he said in Luther’s direction, peering through the fog clouding his eyes to try and recognize the other two figures. One of them – Vanya, he guessed – was standing behind Luther, carrying something else with her, small and unmoving – was it Five?

“What did he say?” Vanya screamed, voice frantic “I can’t hear anything! Five is… he…”

“I can’t move” Five’s voice gritted, pained.

“What the fuck is going on?” Diego bellowed going in Vanya’s direction to help her carry Five.

“Our powers… they’re being reversed.” Five ground out, his mouth moving with painful difficulty.

Luther let himself fall on a chair next to Klaus’s bed “That explains why I can’t even lift you.”

“Yeah? Well, then I’m definitely going blind.” Diego asserted with a resigned gravity, feeling distant and suppressing the urge to break down and cry on the floor.

He helped Vanya carry Five to the bed next to Klaus’ and then sat right next to his boyfriend, seeking the comfort of his presence.

Vanya’s lip wobbled looking anxiously at her brothers and said a bit too loud, making Klaus stir slightly “I’ve called Allison, maybe she can help.”

“No.” Five moaned, voice strained.

Diego felt Klaus whimper next to him, his face a blurred mess. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, love.” He said, whishing he could see him clearly “Try and rest.”

“I don’t feel good.”

Suddenly, he felt Klaus fall away from his grasp, Diego understood that he was leaning over the edge of the bed and he grabbed him by the shoulders afraid that he would fall.

The sound of violent retching was soon followed by the awful stench of blood. Diego could feel Klaus shake beneath his hands before falling unconscious, his whole weight carried by Diego’s hands.

“Fuck, Klaus” Luther whispered, voice full of dread though his movements were slow and weak. “I’m calling Grace.”

“What’s going on?” Diego asked, resting Klaus against the bed.

“Oh my god, Klaus.” Vanya yelled, sounding a lot closer than before.

“What’s going on?” Diego screamed back at her, frustrated.

“He vomited blood.”

When Allison arrived, Diego was already blind.

Klaus was dying. His breathing was laboured, sounding more and more like broken glass. According to Mum it would be a miracle if he survived the next few hours, his organs were giving out one by one.

Diego was seating next to his bed, holding his unresponsive, freezing hand in his, tears flowing freely.

Five was on the bed next to Klaus’, apparently completely paralyzed. He was still able to talk, even if it was only a mumble. Vanya was beside him head in her hands, shaking with sobs, while Luther was asleep too weak to stay awake.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Allison cried, voice desperate the moment she saw the miserable scene.

As soon as she walked in the door the tension in room grew, the same kind of uncomfortable feeling that had took hold of them the other morning returned with full force.

“Don’t talk.” mumbled Five, eyes desperately searching Allison’s.

“What?”

“Don’t talk. Our powers have been reversed.”

Diego couldn’t hear anything else, expect for Allison’s panting and the occasional clicking of her heels as she walked frantically around the room.

Suddenly her voice rang clear in the room as she ordered “Luther, don’t drink water.”

Luther grunted and Diego felt him move, the tap flowing and the sound of him drinking.

He felt her move directly in front of him, and Diego suppressed the urge to flinch away when she touched his hands. “You’re blind.”

Hope clouded his mind, maybe it could really be this simple. But it faded after a few seconds when his sight didn’t recover and Five grunted “No. The alien controls our powers.”

He felt Allison’s heels move quickly as she went out of the room.

Diego didn’t know how long they spent like that. The only thing that changed was that at some point Five had to be helped breathing through a ventilator.

Diego was lying right next to Klaus, unbothered by his freezing skin, his chest against his back and hand right on his heart, feeling its weak beating. He closed his eyes whishing that he could follow Klaus in his death.

His lips found Klaus’ back of the neck in a quick kiss, tears flowing from his clenched eyes. He vaguely noted that Klaus’ skin was feeling a little less freezing under his lips.

He frowned, finally opening his eyes again and he was met by colours and shapes, the fog in his vision slowly receding.

“Vanya?” he called softly, getting out of the bed.

She gasped, getting closer.

“What did you say? You talked right? I’m not imagining it, you actually talked!”

Diego nodded and Vanya ran to Five’s bedside “He’s moving his fingers!” she called. “I’m getting Mum.”

Luther stirred.

“How are you feeling big guy?” Diego asked with a smile, happy to see the blue of his brother’s eyes.

Luther blinked, confused “Wait… you can see me?”

Diego nodded, a smile splitting his face as he felt Klaus’ heart beat faster in his chest.

The phone rang and Diego released his grip on Klaus to answer it, finding Allison’s voice on the other end “Did it work, Diego?”

By now Diego could see everything clearly.

“Yeah, it worked. It worked” he laughed hysterically “You did it!”

“Oh, thank God”

Luther grabbed the phone from his hands, and Diego got back to Klaus’ side.

Green, sleepy eyes were looking at him confusedly “Where am I?”

Diego took his face in his hands, thumb caressing his cheeks as he cried happy tears “How are you feeling, love?”

“Like I’m having the worst hangover yet. What the hell happened?”

Diego hugged him tightly too giddy to actually answer him.

They were okay.

They were okay.

**Author's Note:**

> So there you go.  
> I may re-write it in the future as I'm not very happy with how this turned out, but I want to finish my Soulmate AU project before that.  
> Let me know what you think of it!! :)  
> Here's my tumblr (wanderer-451.tumblr.com/)


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